elegantj bi · 2017-01-10 · 6 white paper: erp vendors can improve competitive advantage and end...
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Integrated Business Intelligence and Reporting for Performance Management,Operational Business Intelligence and Data Management
www.ElegantJBI.com
ElegantJ BI White Paper
ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
ELEGANTJ BI
ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Whitepaper
Abstract
In today’s competitive ERP landscape, the challenge to every vendor is to acquire new clients and to
keep existing clients happy. Traditional reporting tools fall short of client expectations and
customers do not want to incur the expense or delays to constantly create custom reports. While
ERP solutions provide standard report templates and the ability to customize reports, the reporting
environs are relatively static, or provide limited redesign features which must be leveraged by
programmers, ‘power users’ or analysts. This white paper describes the competitive advantage and
enhanced customer value ERP vendors can achieve by integrating a BI solution with an ERP product.
http://www.ElegantJBI.com
contact@ElegantJBI.com
ElegantJBI Copyright. All rights Reserved.
ElegantJBI is a trademark of Elegant MicroWeb. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
Table of Contents
The ERP Market Scenario ........................................................................................................................ 4
Business Intelligence as an ERP Catalyst ................................................................................................. 5
Keeping the Customer Happy ............................................................................................................. 5
Envisioning the Future of ERP Reporting ............................................................................................ 6
Creating a Performance Management Framework for ERP Clients .................................................. 10
Selecting the Right BI Solution and Partner .......................................................................................... 12
About ElegantJ BI .................................................................................................................................. 14
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
The ERP Market Scenario
Today, organizations are cautious about IT investment, and all business managers are looking for the
best return on investment (ROI), and timely results. ERP vendors are anxious to respond to this need
and are looking for a competitive advantage in the ERP software solutions market.
Adding to the increased market pressure is the fact that even existing ERP clients are re-evaluating
their investment and the ongoing cost of licensing, maintenance and upgrades. Where the value of
an ERP solution is stymied by cumbersome reporting or ineffective integration of information, clients
may choose to abandon implementation or expansion of ERP solution integration.
In order to sell products, solutions and services and to sustain ongoing client relationships in this
competitive market, ERP vendors must address several issues:
Improve customer ROI
Reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Provide flexible licensing and payment terms
Offer phased, timely implementation and integration schedules
Offer scalable solutions to ensure ERP system will keep pace with new requirements and
growth
Provide accessibility from offsite and multiple locations via web
Provide more sophisticated, advanced, ‘value-add’ modules
Streamline reporting and information gathering to reduce ERP processing load
Provide features that will provide a competitive advantage
This white paper describes the competitive advantage and enhanced customer value ERP vendors
can achieve through integration of a BI solution with an ERP product. BI integration will provide
more value to new ERP clients and ensure a sustained relationship with existing ERP clients.
ERP vendors know that today’s organizations are more sophisticated and more demanding. Like the
ERP vendor who provides the enterprise solution, the ERP software customer also wants to achieve
a competitive advantage in their market of choice.
ERP solutions provide a myriad of features, functions and information including financials, human
resource (HR) management, operations information for procurement and logistics and
manufacturing, administrative and corporate functionality, and performance management.
Information gathered from within the ERP system is used by the management team to make
decisions and to monitor activities, replenish supplies and perform other operational, tactical and
strategic tasks. Yet, the true power of this information is often lost in a sea of customized reports.
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
Decisions are delayed by report requests that languish in the IT department, or requests waiting for
a spreadsheet expert to develop appropriate formulae or, in some cases, reports that must be
created by the ERP vendor.
As ERP vendors consider the demand for better, more sophisticated modules and features, some
have wisely focused on Business Intelligence (BI). Offering a BI solution to the ERP client can
improve customer ROI, and offer a timely solution that will provide the client with the ability to
make better business decisions and develop and monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These
KPIs ensure operation of the business with full insight into expenses, revenues, sales, finance and
production as well as staffing and other critical considerations.
When an ERP vendor considers the value of BI integration, it must decide how to find or develop the
right BI solution for its needs. Building a new BI system is time consuming and expensive and offers
no immediate advantage to the vendor in competing in a cost-conscious market. A more efficient,
cost-effective, timely solution is to integrate a reputable, solid Business Intelligence product suite
that will provide ample features and flexibility to the ERP client, and offer accurate, dependable
original equipment manufacturer (OEM) support to the ERP vendor who wishes to engage in a
partnership relationship with a BI vendor. The ERP/BI integration partnership can be used
effectively by ERP product vendors and consulting firms to implement and integrate ERP solutions.
With the right partnership, ERP vendors and integrators can easily leverage the benefits of BI, and
ensure a strong, sustained relationship with its clients, thereby increasing revenues and improving
client satisfaction.
Business Intelligence as an ERP Catalyst
Keeping the Customer Happy
In today’s competitive ERP landscape, the challenge to every vendor is to acquire new clients and to
keep existing clients happy. Traditional reporting tools typically fall short of client expectations and
customers do not want to incur the expense or delays to constantly create custom reports. While it
is true that ERP solutions provide standard report templates and the ability to customize reports for
use by a particular organization, these reports are relatively static, or provide limited redesign
features which must be leveraged by programmers or technical staff, or in some instances by ‘power
users’ or analysts who can develop and manipulate data columns, scripts and formulae.
Because the average organization operates in an ever-changing business environment, it is
impossible to anticipate every instance in which a user may need a report, or the format,
presentation, or integrated data required to complete the report and satisfy the end-user’s
expectation.
In order to request a new report, a user must define the requirements and then wait for the report
to be completed by the analyst or technical expert who is juggling competing priorities. Yet, if the
information is to be of any value to the user, it must be timely and accurate. In some scenarios, the
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
report is completed quickly, but the format or data incorporated does not fully meet expectations
because the end user forgot to include a requirement or the analyst misunderstood the details. In
those cases, the analyst must redesign the report and the end user will experience additional delays.
The more reports the analysts and technical staff must design and process, the more demand this
will create on already overburdened system time and processing speed and, in that case, the entire
organization will suffer a delay in the completion of other critical tasks that require the use of ERP
solutions and other systems that depend on the same network within the organization.
Envisioning the Future of ERP Reporting
What if your customer and end user could step into the process and design her or his own report?
What if the system was flexible enough to allow the user to choose data fields from various systems,
or from the ERP system, and produce a report on the fly? If the report did not look right, or if it did
not present the correct information, the user could simply start over, and quickly produce the ‘right’
report to include in a written project summary, or to make a critical business decision.
What if the management team or line managers in an organization could design and present their
own dashboards and periodic reports? If and when a new product, service or competitive situation
presented a need for new information, or new reports, the team could quickly adjust the dashboard
or reports to accommodate the new requirement.
Suppose your clients could easily design and schedule reports for daily, weekly or monthly
publication and send these reports to a list of users via an automatically generated email? Wouldn’t
this simple solution provide flexibility and value to your customers and a competitive advantage in
your ERP market?
Imagine a world in which your clients could work in a self-service environment, designing and
developing alerts and setting thresholds so that they can receive an automated report when
warehouse supplies reach a minimum stock inventory, or when sales fall below projections. End
users could drill down to see more detail and find the source of the issue. Your clients could
confidently use true business intelligence to manage day-to-day and long-term tasks, and to change
strategy and assign tasks as necessary.
By using a suitable BI system, the organization can take the processing load off overburdened ERP
systems and data bases and ensure that ERP systems are running at optimal speed, reducing user
frustration and delayed response time for system response and processing speed.
BI systems can also provide the flexibility for teams, managers, specialists and administrative
personnel to create and run reports to meet the needs of an ever-changing organization, and to
satisfy critical business requirements as they arise.
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
So, what is the advantage to the ERP vendor or integrator?
Focus on acquiring new clients, rather than high-maintenance activities for existing clients
Quickly and easily implement and support the BI solution
Generate additional revenue
Assign critical technical and analytical staff to other, important, high visibility tasks
Offer a competitive advantage to win new clients
Improve client satisfaction
Reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Improve customer ROI
Provide additional value to ERP clients by offering a self-serve BI environment
Ensure that ERP clients can produce simple, accurate reporting on an ad hoc basis
Improve optimal ERP system performance and prevent system overload
Create Performance Management framework for ERP clients
Convert client data into intelligence
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
While ERP solutions may integrate information from legacy systems and specialized best-of-breed software, most ERP solutions do not provide a simple dashboard, analytical approach to information presentation. ERP reports do not satisfy the need for on-the-fly end-user reports that enable the kind of sophisticated decision-making and monitoring power to give the ERP vendor a competitive advantage over the competition.
As you can see from the graphic above, BI integration provides an end-user interface and intelligence solution to satisfy every client need – even the ones they haven’t yet discovered!
When end-users attempt to use spreadsheets or standardized reports, or when they must request custom reports, they experience delays, and the frustration of redesign as well as the limitations of the software programs with which they (or their report designers) are working.
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
Let’s look more closely at the report environments and options available to the ERP customer.
Report writers may seem to be a low cost option. But, because these tools are programmer
oriented, they are not meant for end users. So this seemingly low-cost solution can mean
that the organization must incur the expense of consultants and technical resources to
customize and produce reports. The design and development environment of the typical
reporting tool is inflexible, non-interactive and tightly coupled with existing enterprise
applications and data structures. Producing the required report can take days or even
weeks, especially if the report format is a new one and the designers must test the format
before producing the report.
Spreadsheets are the traditional foundation of financial reporting and other statistical,
numbers-driven departments. They have been used by small and mid-size organizations
alike to satisfy the demand for analysis. But spreadsheets lack integrity (designers can use an
incorrect formula); traceability, consistency, and information security, and they can lead to
non-compliance of security frameworks and standards. It is difficult, at best, to track
versioning in a spreadsheet environment and there is little or no publishing or collaborative
functionality within the spreadsheet software. Because the information in a spreadsheet can
be out of date, and formula design can be inaccurate, the end user often discounts the value
of the data, and questions the validity of the report
Business Intelligence solutions offer the end-user a flexible, cost-effective, secure,
sophisticated information delivery system, and by integrating a BI solution with the ERP
system, the ERP vendor satisfies the client’s need to quickly and effectively manage
information and decisions, receive alerts and automatic reports, and remain competitive in
their product or service market.
Delivery Design and Flexibility Ease of Use Delivery, Cost, Other Considerations
BI
Personalized Design
End User Accessibility
Immediate Access
Reports
Standard Templates
Analyst or Technical Designer
Delay, Waiting for Design, Costs
Spreadsheets
Structured Software
Spreadsheet Expert
Labor Intensive, Formulae Design, Unsecured Data
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
When a software vendor can help its clients improve their bottom line, the likelihood of a sustained
relationship is much greater. The reason is simple! A satisfied client is much more likely to sustain a
business relationship with an ERP vendor or consultant, thereby creating mutual value and ensuring
ERP vendor and end user success.
Creating a Performance Management Framework for ERP Clients
By integrating the BI solution with the ERP system, the vendor will create a framework for advanced
performance management, improve the availability and quality of data, improve the client
confidence in decision making, and reduce delays - thereby ensuring the potential for increased
licensing and other revenue.
Business Intelligence is not reporting – it is Performance Management, and that makes all the
difference in the world to your clients. When your ERP software client considers annual expenses,
licensing fees and other organizational costs, the business managers will look for the value your
system can offer, over and above the data repository and standard reports. Because your clients
must remain competitive, it is critical to their business success to find, filter and analyze information
quickly, and without adding additional staff or hiring expensive consultants. In short, your clients
need a simple picture of the information, and they need to enhance and speed the decision process.
Performance Management offers a competitive advantage to the ERP vendor in a challenging
software market, and it adds value for your clients, and improves customer satisfaction. When you
integrate your ERP product with Business Intelligence, you can offer clients the following features
and benefits:
By using the BI information system, ERP clients can gather, filter and present information to:
communicate strategy and mission to stakeholders and employees
align the operational units to the corporate strategy
monitor and manage tactical tasks and activities
Balanced Scorecards
BI Dashboards
Forecasting and Predictive Analysis
Cross Tab OLAP Analysis Graphical OLAP
Exception Report Alerts Reports
Publishing Delivery Agents Data Extraction and Transformation
Cube Management
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
Executives can establish performance indicators to provide measurable results and compare year-
over-year sales, staffing, growth and other metrics, and the BI system can help your users establish
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and provide tangible business measurements, in an uncertain
market environment. With BI integration your clients can obtain clear, concise information, answer
questions, and make decisions about their business in a timely fashion and with complete
confidence. With Business Intelligence (BI) integration your ERP clients can develop metrics, monitor
results and answer critical questions with ease.
Here are a few examples of the critical business questions your ERP clients could answer with BI
integration:
How do we achieve top ten brand standing in our competitive market?
How can we reduce our overhead?
How can we reduce churn in our customer base and ensure repeat business?
How can we accelerate our planning and decision cycles?
How do we monitor conditions and take early corrective action?
What were the results of our strategy?
How can we reduce delays in the supply chain?
What percentage of turnover is generated annually, by new client acquisition, as compared
to the previous three fiscal years?
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
Planning – Including scorecards and dashboards that define and monitor strategy and
enable goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). With clear forecasting capability, your
clients can define and manage sustainable strategies predicated on the best, most current
data.
Monitoring – Alerts and automated publishing and delivery mechanisms will enable your
clients to see dashboard information and scorecards that define ‘current state’ and allow
end users to quickly identify issues, so the team can resolve problems and handle an issue
before it becomes an emergency.
Analysis – End users can establish performance targets and analyze and report on
performance to ensure that strategy, objectives and goals are aligned with actual results.
Reports and analysis are produced in a concise, easy-to-read format and supported by
graphical mining tools, cross tabulation features and other robust functionality.
Directing – Your end users can use exception reporting, analysis alerts and automated
delivery of published dashboards and reports to manage and monitor results and provide
team and individual direction toward achieving corporate, departmental and individual
goals.
Improvement – Continuous improvement is paramount for every organization. How can we
do it better, faster, with consistent quality, and in a more timely fashion? Scorecards and
analytical reports and tools enable your clients to adapt to change and improve
performance, even in the most challenging business environs.
If you could offer your clients a simple, interactive solution to help them answer these puzzling and
critical business questions, you could generate more revenue, increase customer satisfaction and
allow technical and consulting staff to focus on other, more critical tasks, rather than on producing
custom client reports.
Selecting the Right BI Solution and Partner
In order to achieve the benefits of ERP/BI integration, as defined in this white paper, the ERP vendor
must carefully select a BI product and vendor to suit its needs, and the needs of its clients. When
considering the Business Intelligence vendors in the market, it is important to objectively assess the
value provided by the vendor, its product, its support services and its reputation.
The table below provides a starting point for assessing a Business Intelligence solution provider and
its products and services.
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
Product Features
Ease of Use
Architecture
Accessibility
Ease of Integration
Technical Documentation
Upgrades
Services Sales Support
Maintenance Support
User Documentation
Account Management
Project Management
Experience Technical
Support
Processes
Quality
Ongoing Training
Management Experience
Years in Business
Accessibility and Dependability Testing Processes
Product Platform and Framework Accessibility
Staff Accessibility
Partner Documentation
Point of Contact
Partnership and OEM Structure Contract Terms and Flexibility
Partnership History and Reputation
Service Level Agreements
Stability of Vendor Business
Pricing Licensing
Terms
Flexible pricing and licensing to suit ERP vendor needs and ensure cost-effective pricing for clients.
While there are many other considerations that may be unique to a particular ERP vendor, the table above offers some suggested areas for focus in the selection of a BI partner and vendor.
Conclusion The ERP vendor is under increasing pressure in the market. In order to remain competitive, the
vendor must mitigate excessive price increases, provide cutting edge features and functionality,
excellent support, timely upgrades and valuable, ROI-focused products to help its clients maintain,
grow and understand their business.
We recommend that ERP vendors place Business Intelligence (BI) functionality at the top of the list
when considering new modules or functionality.
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White Paper: ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration
Visit us at www.ElegantJBI.com @ 2010, ElegantJ BI
Because ERP reporting and presentation tools are ‘report driven’, the average ERP client can be
frustrated by the need for new, more flexible reports and the time and cost required to develop
these reports.
Business Intelligence provides the ERP client with a Performance Management tool, and the ability
to develop and track Key Performance Indicators. As such, it is well suited to satisfy the strategic
needs of the organization. But, it can also satisfy the need for ease of use, adaptability, flexibility,
affordability, and an approach to reporting and information gathering that will not slow down
corporate systems or require technical or consulting expertise.
For the ERP vendor, integration of BI with the ERP product can create a competitive advantage in the
ERP market, and it can increase customer satisfaction and revenue. But, the ERP vendor must be
cautious and judicious in assessing and choosing a Business Intelligence (BI) vendor as a partner, or
entering into an OEM relationship. It is important to consider BI vendor stability, product integrity
and features, and most of all, the sales and product support the ERP vendor can expect to receive
from the BI vendor.
When BI and ERP are integrated effectively and with careful consideration, the benefit and value to
the end user and the ERP vendor and/or integrator consultant is undeniable.
About ElegantJ BI
We make Business Intelligence more accessible and affordable to organizations of all sizes, across all
industries. ElegantJ BI is a single comprehensive product that provides a simple, complete portfolio
of business intelligence capabilities to help organizations consolidate and filter streamlined quality
information to manage core strategies and improve performance management. Designed for diverse
environments, and easy access, ElegantJ BI solutions enable organizations to gain insight from a
range of integrated data sources, applications and third party systems.
The ElegantJ BI suite is built on a comprehensive, innovative, leading edge BI platform, unifying web-
based analytics, dynamic reporting and Business Intelligence for Performance Management,
Operational BI and Data Management.
We have clients around the world, in a wide range of industries and vertical markets and they have
successfully deployed ElegantJ BI Solutions for competitive business advantage, leveraging simple,
practical, affordable ElegantJ BI products to accomplish specific business performance goals.
Our partners enjoy a premium partnership, OEM experience, with full sales support, affordable fees
and an experienced, knowledgeable team accessible to answer questions and provide product
support. We focus on sustained partnerships and mutual benefit.
www.ElegantJBI.com Get competitive with ElegantJ BI, today…..To learn more about leveraging ElegantJ BI Solutions for your business, please visit our website.
Copyright © Elegant MicroWeb Technologies Pvt. Ltd (EMTPL), all rights reserved. EJBIR1008WP- ERP Vendors Can Improve Competitive Advantage and End User Value with Business Intelligence (BI) Integration - Version 1.1 - Published 2010. Any other company and product names mentioned are used for identification purpose only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners and are duly acknowledged.
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